Politics isn't a game, as Theresa May recognises - so treat the Conservative Party properly

The Conservatives were proportionally the largest, strongest, broadest-based political party in the history of a free countryCredit:
-/Via www.burtonlatimer.info

One of the most extraordinary features of David Cameron’s political career was that he was in the House of Commons only four years before becoming party leader. The fact that he was clearly the best man for the job, with so little experience, tells you something about how his party had decayed. Partly because Mr Cameron often saw the party grass-roots as the problem rather than the solution, they have withered even more since then.

The process continues: the latest Conservative Party Review wants party membership to be centralised. This is argued for in the name of efficiency, but a shift of money always means a shift of power.

The party HQ will take the money directly, and therefore spend it the way it wants. This was proposed under Mr Cameron’s leadership, but is being pushed ahead regardless under Patrick McCoughlin, the new party chairman appointed by Theresa May, the leader whom the members never got the chance to vote for.

It would be a good time to pause. Every electoral indicator suggests that people are fed up with over-centralised control of their lives. Every politician pays lip service to this, but goes on centralising all the same. Mass parties either get taken over, like Labour, by entryists, or, like the Tories, fade.

Party leaderships no longer arise from a serious engagement with hundreds of thousands of members who can tell them what life in Britain is really like, but from coups by small Westminster-based gangs who are better at plotting than governing. Hence the fragility and inauthenticity of modern politics.

The modern voluntary party - the Right Hon Eric Pickles MP with members of Harrow East Conservative AssociationCredit:
-/Via harroweastconservatives.com

Mrs May has a fine scorn for highly educated youngish men who treat politics as a ''game’’. It would be good if she translated that anger into action by trying, in modern form, to turn the Conservatives into what they once were – the largest (proportionally), strongest, broadest-based political party in the history of a free country. It will certainly be hard; but the shocking thing is that it is not even being thought about.

A Prime Minister big on society

There was a magnificent memorial service at St Paul’s, Knightsbridge, last week for Lord Leach, the eminence grise of rational Euroscepticism, who sadly died just before the referendum in June.

Mr Cameron, who had often drawn on the wisdom of Rodney Leach and his think tank, Open Europe, came to the service. So he should have done, but we all thought that it was dashing of him to do so.

The majority of the congregation were strong Leave supporters, so there was the former prime minister sitting among a good crop of those who had, in effect, forced him out.

He was amusing and relaxed at the reception afterwards, as if among friends – which, despite everything, he sort of was.

David Cameron's time in office - by numbers

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Everything has happened in such a rush that it is difficult to form a clear judgment of Mr Cameron’s time in office yet. Personally, I am confused – finding myself criticising him to his friends and defending him against his enemies.

But I hope that history will find room to record that, as a prime minister with whom to pass an hour in good talk about pretty much anything, he had no rival in modern times.

Let's be more relaxed about grammar rules

Following Mrs May’s invitation, everyone has pitched into the subject of grammar schools. It has rightly been pointed out, including by supporters of new grammars, that the 11-plus, by itself, is not something to return to.

It is worth adding that there is something strange about having a uniform national entry pass mark in such an exam.

Grammar school debate dominates PMQs

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Compare this with independent secondary schools. They too (most of them) admit by a shared exam, called Common Entrance, but they have always been happy with the idea that different schools will demand different pass marks: some public schools are very academic, some definitely not.

Couldn’t different grammars reach out to different levels of attainment? Almost everything that is dislikeable about the state system lies in its inflexibility. It needs loosening up.

We never shout housey-housey

Under government reforms, communities are being invited to draw up their own neighbourhood plans, including where new houses should be built. This interesting idea has just reached our village, and the first public meeting has been held to discuss it. But there are some strange rules.

The plan wants us to make room for 30 more houses, but single houses do not qualify. You have to build at least five together before they are houses within the meaning of the Act. This is silly because, in a small village, the larger the single site required, the less likely you are to find one.

Roads to riches

Staying with kind friends at several places in remote northern areas last month, we found that when we entered their addresses into the satnav, they were invariably described as being at the end of a “limited-access road”.

This phrase was traditionally conveyed by the word “drive”. But I think in these egalitarian times, “limited-access road” sounds better. It suggests deprivation, and might make one eligible for a grant.

Faulty connection

There have been difficulties filing this column, because BT has cut my access to the internet (and yes, I have paid the bill). So I rang BT, leaving the phone ringing. A message kept telling me that 'Your call WILL be answered as soon as possible’. The call has now, as I write, been ringing for 2 hours and 31 minutes. I give up.